Despite rumours that Vista's first service pack (SP1) wouldn't show up until as late as early next year, it looks like we'll see the final build released well before then. Apparently Microsoft are planning to put Vista SP1 into initial beta stages in as early as another week or so.

According to sources, the beta testing period will last around four months, indicating that we should see the official SP1 launch sometime in November.

Some of the major updates implemented into SP1 will be a revised Desktop Search function, improved file transfer and shutdown speeds, further enhancements to BitLocker Drive Encryption, SD Advanced Direct Memory Access, Windows ReadyBoost adjustments and stacks more.

Head over to ZDNet for more details on it.

It's official: We are now in the under-promise and over-deliver era at Microsoft.

Just when Microsoft had customers, partners and competitors all believing that it was going to delay the first service pack for Vista - not releasing a first beta of it until just before year-end - the company is set to deliver Beta 1 of Vista SP1 in mid-July.

Word (from various sources who asked not to be named) is Microsoft is gearing up to drop Vista SP1 some time the week of July 16. And despite what Microsoft seemingly led Google, the U.S. Department of Justice and other company watchers to believe, the final version of Vista SP1 is sounding like November 2007.